While Bartz is his rival in the Light to All storyline, his main rival in the Dissidia 012 Final FantasyTreachery of the Gods storyline is Kain, whom he pursues to find the location of the warriors of Cosmos that Kain knocked out.

Contents

Profile

Appearance

Exdeath is virtually unchanged from his Yoshitaka Amano artwork and in-game battle sprite in Final Fantasy V. He wears a sky blue suit of armor with a horned helmet, spiked shoulders, and a long blue cape. His helmet is topped with a two-ended plume and has a thin opening. His armor is decorated with jewels, gold trim, and beads. Although he is a warlock, Exdeath carries a sword.

In his first alternate costume, "Santalum Robe", Exdeath's armor is a lighter blue-green shade, based on the sprite() of Exdeath's Soul, a palette swap of him faced in Final Fantasy V.

Exdeath's second alternate outfit, "Ebony Robe", is based on Yoshitaka Amano's artwork() of Neo Exdeath. He has a yellow and blue cape and white skin, revealing gold-lined black armor with yellow sashes around his waist connected to a blue gemstone. Exdeath has a demonic face, gray hair, and curved yellow horns with fin-like appendages emerging from their bases. His EX Mode is based on the front, humanoid portion() of Neo Exdeath's sprite. The gold colorings on his armor turn brown, his hair is brown and styled differently, his cape is purple, and his horns turn red and grow larger. In the "Battle Tips" menu, Penelo implies this is Exdeath's appearance underneath his suit of armor, saying "His face is pretty...scary..."

Moore Branch - Default weapon. The sword has been featured in his Yoshitaka Amano art and in battles against him in Final Fantasy V. Unlike other sword wielders, Exdeath primarily attacks with the sword with telekinesis in the Dissidia series.

Animus - 1st alternate weapon. The sword has a black handle and a bright blue blade where the tip splits in two, and a large decorated guard with multiple jewels adorned across the sword. The jewels resemble those of Exdeath's decorated armor.

Predominance - 2nd alternate weapon. The sword has a black handle, a golden and fanged guard, and an orange and black blade in a jagged, flame-like design.

Void Sword - 3rd alternate weapon. The main blade is segmented: sharp from the tip and diverging downwards as separate curved blades toward the hilt. The guard is spiked and colored silver with a purple crest in its center, while the handle is black and purple with a curved pommel.

Exdeath's alternate weapons have not appeared in prior Final Fantasy games, and are new and original for the Dissidia series. The naming and design of the weapons refer to both Exdeath's personality and arrogance in his powers.

Exdeath's default player name is Nameless Tree, and his manikin counterpart is renamed Arboreal Echo.

Personality

This is the sensation. The boundaries of the flesh are broken, dissolving into nothingness... The Void is where all begins and all ends. Soon, all of you will become a part of this eternity!

Exdeath

Exdeath is brash and arrogant, frequently mocking the warriors of Cosmos as "worms" and boasting his prowess as a powerful mage. He is obsessed with obtaining the power of the Void, and desires World B's destruction by it, hence his alliance with other "destroyers", such as Kefka and the Cloud of Darkness.

Exdeath's motives may be rooted in his belief that all existence, including his, will inevitably return to the Void, regardless of the outcome of his actions. He allies with the other warriors of Chaos for his own amusement, and does not seek a specific rival to fight. Exdeath more readily accepts defeat than the other warriors of Chaos, as he continues to laugh even as he fades away, presumably at the futility of the warriors of Cosmos's attempts to fight their fate to disappear.

Story

Prior to the twelfth conflict, Exdeath found the portal that unleashed the manikins into World B and regained most of his memories, although he sees no point in divulging them when the other champions don't remember. Exdeath appears with Garland at the Chaos Shrine shortly after Lightning's battle with Kain, and implies that Bartz is not the first Warrior of Cosmos Kain betrayed. He pursues Kain to learn the location of his allies, and later appears to battle him. Following his defeat, Exdeath conjures several manikins to attack the dragoon, but this too ends in failure, forcing a retreat.

Alongside Golbez, Exdeath later appears before the surviving warriors of Cosmos and tells them that the level of manikins is low in the area. The warriors realize they are going to attack Cosmos and hurry to stop them, but Kain stays behind. When Exdeath attempts to summon the manikins to his assistance, he realizes his control over them has been nullified by Golbez, who has betrayed the warriors of Chaos to aid his brother. Exdeath loses to Kain, yet as he fades gloats that the dragoon will find nothing but a complete demise with his allies.

Thirteenth cycle

Exdeath appears before Onion Knight and Terra while they are searching for the their Crystals, seeking someone to fight to alleviate his boredom. The Onion Knight is intimidated and meekly asks him to leave them alone, claiming they are too weak to be worthy opponents. Exdeath agrees to spare them, but warns the Onion Knight that cowards will not find the Crystals. Exdeath meets with Kefka, telling him that Terra acts of her own will now and likely will not be swayed back to Chaos's side.

Exdeath fights Cecil after threatening Golbez.

Exdeath finds Golbez speaking to his younger brother, Cecil, telling him about the Crystals. With Exdeath intent on executing Golbez for his treachery in the previous cycle (having remembered due to his power over the manikins), Cecil opts to defend his brother and defeats Exdeath, claiming Golbez is different from him. Exdeath laughs and says that light and darkness share the same root before departing.

Under Kefka's suggestion, Kuja recruits Exdeath to assist him in their plans for Bartz and Zidane. Exdeath weaves a fake Crystal and leaves it for Bartz to find. Though he finds Golbez interfering, Exdeath lets it pass as he reveals his goal is a "true ending" to the conflict. After Zidane is teleported away by the fake Crystal, Exdeath confronts Bartz and Squall as they run off, conjuring manikins to attack them. Exdeath pursues the two to the Interdimensional Rift where Bartz finally engages him and wins. Exdeath fades away, and Bartz's Crystal manifests from his chocobo feather good luck charm.

When Cosmos is eventually destroyed, Exdeath and Kefka appear before her warriors. They explain that by collecting the Crystals her warriors weakened her, as the power of the Crystals is the power of Cosmos herself, allowing the God of Discord to wipe her out. As they fade away, Exdeath plots to return the world to the Void.

The heroes encounter Exdeath in the rift, who compliments the Crystals' strength. After being defeated, Exdeath fades into nothingness, delighting in his true demise while declaring the warriors will follow suit soon enough.

During the twelfth cycle, in "Lightning's Quest 012: One Can Fight Together", Exdeath attacks Lightning while she is musing over the memories stirred by Firion's wild rose, mocking her reliance on a flower to regain her memories. Yuna assists Lightning in defeating Exdeath, who retreats. In "Sephiroth's Quest 012: The Hero's Memory" Exdeath tells Sephiroth that the manikins are hollow shells found in the Rift, motivating Sephiroth to kill himself to determine the true nature of the cycle and the purification of fallen warriors. Exdeath is briefly mentioned in "Kain's Quest 012: A Dragoon's Betrayal", when Kain thinks his plan to defeat Lightning and put her to sleep has to be delayed, as Exdeath's pursuit runs the risk he will be followed to where he is safeguarding the other defeated warriors.

During an unspecified cycle in "Gilgamesh's Quest 000: End of a Hero's Delusion", Gilgamesh re-enters World B and begins looking for Bartz. Finding Exdeath, Gilgamesh struggles to remember him and comes to think Exdeath is Enkidu. Gilgamesh joyfully battles his "old friend" to celebrate the reunion. Gilgamesh's memories soon return, and Exdeath mocks his amnesia. They battle again, and Gilgamesh is consumed by the Rift, Exdeath declaring it is a suitable fate for him.

Exdeath is summoned as a warrior of Spiritus, but is unaware that he was back in World B. At the Void, Exdeath gloats to Bartz about how he has finally unlocked it. Bartz demands to know what he did to his friends, and the two duel. Cloud and Sephiroth "team up" with Bartz and Exdeath, respectively, while also dueling each other. Sephiroth concocts an escape plan, but does not share this with Exdeath until the planesgorgers arrive.

Exdeath emerges in Narshe, and after insulting Shantotto, duels her as well as Firion and Tidus. He is joined by Kefka who emerges from a dimensional portal. They knock Tidus into Pandaemonium, and greet Ultimecia. After Firion and Shantotto arrive, Exdeath witnesses Shantotto and Ultimecia insult each other before engaging in battle. A planesgorger arrives before Shantotto and her allies can escape. Exdeath is outraged with their presence, knowing Shinryu is responsible, before nonetheless continuing his duel. He and Kefka launch Firion to the portal, but he ends up saved by Jecht. Exdeath, Ultimecia, and Kefka arrive at Besaid shortly after Jecht, Tidus, and Firion, but they cannot continue their duel due to the planesgorgers' arrival on that world as well. Exdeath vows revenge against the planesgorgers and the cause of them before taking his leave.

When the heroes and villains meet to stage a battle to lure Shinryu out, Bartz tells Exdeath that though they are joining forces now, it is a temporary alliance. In response, Exdeath quietly places his hands over his blade hilt. During the battle, he attacks Onion Knight using his blade telekinetically, and then parries Zidane's ambush from behind before teleporting away just as the Emperor uses Dreary Cell on them.

As soon as Shinryu arrives, Exdeath participates in the joint attack to defeat Shinryu, but is repelled. After regaining their composure, the warriors work together to defeat Shinryu. Afterwards, the moogles give Exdeath a crystal to host his memories for Spiritus to use in the new cycles of wars. With a crystal doppelgänger of himself to serve on Spiritus's behalf, Exdeath returns to his homeworld.

Spoilers end here.

Gameplay

Exdeath is described as an Entropic Adversary. His offensive Bravery attacks are slow and weak, but rather than be aggressive, Exdeath uses several powerful guards to block opposing attacks and launch swift, powerful counterattacks. Exdeath's guard attacks vary in effectiveness, but overall he can block almost any attack. Exdeath can teleport, which somewhat compensates for his slow movement. His HP attack Delta Attack doubles as another blocking attack, and his other two HP attacks are usable as counterattacks.

Exdeath's guard attacks have the same counterattacks, and he can use any of his counterattacks when guarding regardless of if he has them equipped as normal attacks or not. When using any of the following counterattacks, Exdeath attacks much quicker than if he used them as normal attacks. In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Exdeath can cancel any of his HP attacks into his guard attacks, and can combo Reverse Polarity into one of his counterattacks if it damages the opponent.

Hold to send out a circle of energy that bounces off obstacles, release button to teleport to the circle's location instantly. Damages opponent and knocks them upwards if Exdeath teleports to their position.

Turn Guard(ground)

Ground

30 (15)

80

Block Mid

Block

N/A

Initial

Hold to raise a barrier to block frontal attacks. Exdeath turns to face opponent while barrier is maintained.

Hold to send out a circle of energy that bounces off obstacles, release button to teleport to the circle's location instantly. Damages opponent and knocks them upwards if Exdeath teleports to their position.

Turn Guard(midair)

Aerial

30 (15)

80

Block Mid

Block

N/A

Initial

Hold to raise a barrier to block frontal attacks. Exdeath turns to face opponent while barrier is maintained.

Exdeath's EX Mode is Power of the Void, and is his tree form as seen in the second to last battle of Final Fantasy V. While in EX Mode Exdeath gains the ability "Speed Guard." This decreases the recovery time from his guard attacks and lets him perform twice as many counterattacks when he successfully blocks an attack with them.

Exdeath's EX Burst is Power of the Void in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy—in Dissidia Final Fantasy, his EX Burst is The laws of the universe mean nothing!. The player must hold to reduce an energy gauge to 0% as Exdeath conjures the power of the Void around him and the opponent. If the player releases too early or too late, Exdeath will cast a more powerful version of Grand Cross. If the player releases the button exactly as the gauge hits 0%, Exdeath will use Neo Almagest, casting the opponent into the Void and sealing the entrance between his hands as the screen fades to black.

Attack your opponent and spawn a black hole on top of them, applying a debuff that rapidly decreases their bravery.

The Black Hole debuff will be removed from your target after a certain period of time passes, after you are hit, after your target's bravery returns to default value after being broken, or after their bravery returns to default after landing an HP attack.

Exdeath's HP attacks, and the Bravery attacks Reverse Polarity and Vacuum Wave, are used by either him or Neo Exdeath in Final Fantasy V. Sword Dance is named for the party ability of the same name. The name of his EX Burst is taken from a line Neo Exdeath frequently utters during the final battle.

Exdeath's Reverse Polarity attack takes its name from an enemy ability in the main series that changes the party members' row position. His use of the attack to teleport further from, and closer to, his opponent, roughly reflects this concept.

When confronting the warriors of Cosmos at the beginning of Shade Impulse, Exdeath's line "All shall be returned to nothing, as will I... For eternity!" is based on what Neo Exdeath says at the beginning of the final battle in Final Fantasy V: "All that is shall be returned to nothing. Then I, too, can disappear... ...forever!!!"

When Exdeath begins his EX Burst, he poses similar to his tree form's sprite pose, and the background appears in a circular bubble before expanding to fill the screen, similar to how the portals to the Void appear over towns in Final Fantasy V. His starting line, "To the silent beyond!", refers to the music track in Final Fantasy V played during the cutscene after defeating Neo Exdeath.

In Destiny Odyssey IV when he is defeated by Cecil he screams "Uwaaah!!!", which is his death cry when he is defeated in his tree form and absorbed by the Void.

Neo Almagest is not an attack Exdeath uses in battle in his original game, but is instead identical to the way he attempts to dispatch the heroes just before the final battle; he sucks them into the Void through a black portal, and then collapses the entrance.

Upon reaching Level 100, an extra voice sample can be purchased in the PP Catalog, which features Exdeath yelling "Turtle!", a line he uttered during his battle with the turtle sage Ghido. This line sometimes replaces "To the silent beyond!" when initiating Exdeath's EX Burst. In the Japanese version, he shouts "Kame!" which means turtle. The line functions as an unintentional pun on Exdeath's fighting style—in video gaming communities, "turtling" means playing very defensively.

In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, when using Exdeath's EX Burst on Gilgamesh, an extra line of text reading "You worthless fool!" appears as Exdeath begins to charge the attack, and the box that normally reads "Neo Almagest" is changed to read "Fall to the depths of the Rift!" Along with Exdeath's line when facing Gilgamesh, this alludes to Exdeath's dialogue in banishing Gilgamesh to the Void in Final Fantasy V, "You worthless fool! For your continued bungling, I banish you from this dimension!"

When Exdeath performs Neo Almagest, he says "Embrace the stillness of eternity". In the Game Boy Advance and subsequent remakes of Final Fantasy V, Enuo, who meets the party within the Void, says that "All that is sealed within this beautiful darkness is the stillness of eternity".

Out of the warriors of Chaos, Exdeath has the most control over the manikins. This may allude to Final Fantasy V where he can command the Demons of the Rift.

Trivia

In the Japanese version, when defeated, Exdeath refers to the Final Fantasy series by saying, "Is this my final fantasy?" In the English versions this line is, "Will I end like a mirage?"

Exdeath is one of two characters with the same set of moves in midair as on the ground. The other one is Ultimecia.

Counting variations of the same moves, Exdeath has the most attacks of all characters, nine Bravery attacks each for air and ground and four HP attacks each for air and ground, a total of twenty-six attacks.

Exdeath has the slowest movement speed even when equipped with Speed++.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Exdeath's EX Burst is the strongest among the Chaos warriors. This is changed in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Exdeath is the first antagonist in Dissidia NT to be classed as a Specialist.